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Athlon Sports contributor Tom Bowles examines the lack of caution flags in NASCAR in 2012 and why teams and drivers are not being more aggressive.&lt;/p&gt;
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<em><strong><span style="font-size:14px;">Exploring the lack of yellow flags in the Sprint Cup Series this season</span></strong></em></p>
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<em><span style="font-size: 14px; ">by Tom Bowles</span></em></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;">For years, NASCAR has given new meaning to the phrase “contact sport.” With 43 cars in close proximity at tracks as little as a half-mile in length, it’s hard to run mistake-free, as one bad bump between two combatants can lead to <em>SportsCenter</em>&nbsp;highlights for the sparks that fly afterwards. Heck, as we’ve seen this season, even the jet dryers aren’t immune to danger when someone – or something – breaks.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;">Those types of scenarios that cause the field to bunch up under yellow, from the bizarre to the mundane (a hot dog wrapper can cause a caution for debris), have played into the sport’s strategy and unpredictability for decades. But as the story of&nbsp;NASCAR 2012&nbsp;continues to unfold, one of the biggest storylines continues to be how Sprint Cup racing has “cleaned up” its act.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;">Through six events — even with the Daytona explosion — the sport has seen just 38 caution flags, the fewest number in nearly a dozen years. Half-mile ovals like Bristol and Martinsville, once known for their Demolition Derby status, each had two green-flag runs of well over 100 laps. At Fontana, Mother Nature was the only thing stopping the first caution-free race since 2002. Even crashfest Daytona, with its 10 yellow flags, saw that number drop sharply from 16 the previous year.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;">So what gives? For one, NASCAR’s Chase system appears to be backfiring early in the regular season. The new rules state that to make the playoffs, a driver must do one of two things: finish inside the top 10 in points or earn one of two “wild card” positions by having the most victories among those not already qualified. The only caveat there is you have to be inside the top 20 in points; however, with only about 30 fully-funded cars running this season that’s not exactly a major obstacle to overcome. Case in point: Jeff Gordon, whose year has already included more bad breaks than the North Carolina backcourt in the NCAA Tournament, yet he sits 21st&nbsp;in the standings, just seven outside of the magical cutoff. One win — as early as Texas next weekend — and the No. 24 will have all but qualified for the playoffs.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;">That sets the bar low for the sport’s top drivers, and as Jimmie Johnson has proven in recent years, they certainly know it. More and more, teams are developing the five-time champ’s mentality to treat the regular season like a “test session,” accumulating points when possible but not overdoing it for fear of what amounts to a points penalty by pushing your car to the ragged edge. This system also rewards consistency, not risk, which means a 35th-place effort for wrecking while gunning for the lead in the final few laps could be devastating. It’s a culture where “hanging out” in seventh place has been cultivated as the ultimate reward — have a B-plus day and you’ll have a shot for the A-plus trophy by making the playoffs in September.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;">This creates a domino effect on the racetrack. When drivers get conservative, they won’t push the issue and run side-by-side. That lessens the chances for contact and, ultimately, a wreck that would cause a caution. Riding, not racing, has never been more prevalent — and it’s a growing problem NASCAR will have to address with its constituents never feeling a sense of urgency.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;">Of course, NASCAR has helped its own “caution-free” cause by virtually wiping out any for “debris.” A growing complaint among longtime fans, that the sport is manipulating those yellow flags to keep the field bunched up, seems to have fallen on the right ears. The temptation to interrupt the flow of Fontana, where each car had the equivalent of the Mojave Desert between them, had to be overwhelming at times, but officials respected the integrity of the race and didn’t allow a piece of plastic to alter the way strategy naturally played out.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;">There’s another side to this whole green-flag flow to be aware of, and it’s perhaps the most important factor: This year’s caution flag total is nearly identical to 2004, the first year of the Chase that also suffered from a lack of competitive teams on race day. Only 36 fully-funded teams, at times, attempted races and there were a similar number of start-and-parkers filling the field like the Cup Series today. Then, like now, some of the sport’s biggest names were struggling for sponsorship while there appeared to be a lack of both new ownership and cash flowing its way into the sport.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;">When faced with that scenario, it’s easy for drivers to get conservative because, simply put, there isn’t any money to fix wrecked racecars. We’ve seen that in the Nationwide Series the past couple of years already. Drivers readily admit their sole course of action is survival because their ride doesn’t even come equipped with a backup. If you’re about to run side-by-side with a rival, and it’s a risky move and you don’t have the money to fix mangled sheet metal … would you do it? The “short-term pain for long-term gain” theory applies, as drivers are content to ride around simply because they need to be financially secure that his or her same ride will be around the next week.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;">So is a breakout of green-flag competition a good thing? It depends on what the drivers do with it. Racing clean is what everyone — fans and competitors alike — would like to see, but there’s a difference between that and staying conservative. In the end, as we’ve discussed many times in this space, sports is entertainment, and a single-file procession in the name of getting to the next regular season event doesn’t exactly light up a viewers’ smile on the couch. When drivers literally can’t afford to get aggressive, the only way you force it out of them is through the proximity of double-file restarts after cautions. So does that mean NASCAR should start waving yellow flags for any old reason, like the aforementioned mystery debris? That’s not the right answer, either. </span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;">The ultimate solution lies in the boardroom, not the racetrack. But until we see greater financial stability, the “survival style” racing may be the norm – not the exception — for the foreseeable future.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><em>Follow Tom Bowles on Twitter:</em> <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.twitter.com/NASCARBowles" target="_blank"><a href="http://twitter.com/NASCARBowles">@NASCARBowles</a></a><br />
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-68 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Miscellaneous:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/miscellaneous/nascar">NASCAR</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/miscellaneous/daytona">Daytona</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/miscellaneous/caution-flag">caution flag</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/miscellaneous/tom-bowles">Tom Bowles</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/miscellaneous/jet-dryer-fire">jet dryer fire</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-66 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">NASCAR Drivers:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/nascar-drivers/jeff-gordon">Jeff Gordon</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/nascar-drivers/jimmie-johnson">Jimmie Johnson</a></div></div></div>Thu, 05 Apr 2012 14:20:53 +0000Matt Taliaferro9488 at http://athlonsports.com